This and that

[selenak]

This week, I read a couple of harrowing books, both fiction and non-fiction, and in between watched Soul, the Disney movie reccomended to me, which turned out to be delightful - both visually (it's amazing was Pixar does here) and in terms of characterisation. Our hero is Joe Gardner, a music teacher wishing he could be full time jazz pianist, voiced by Jamie Foxx, and early on I thought the story would go for another rerun of the basic It's a wonderful life premise, but no, the story goes into another direction. His sidekick-slash-co-lead whom he acquires later on is called 22, voiced by Tina Fey, and we get Angela Bassett voicing jazz saxophonist Dorothy Williams in a supporting role. As Disney/Pixar heroes go, Joe is endearing yet flawed, and believable as a passionate musician to me, which isn't always the case when films depict artists (yet avoid giving more than a nod to the type of art that's supposed to be essential to their lives). You can tell where the broad story is going, but there were some great twists and turns in between, and I really enjoyed watching this in between creeped out by some 18th century people.

I also would have enjoyed the Borgias rewatch I had planned, but alas it turned out my DVDs, which I had not watched in years, possibly since a year after the show ended, are of a terrible quality. One episode was barely watchable, and the next dissolved into blackness. This does not make me happy panda.

Much more importantly: no sooner was I happy that my parents had been vaccinated that Astra Zeneca (first shot) , which they were vaccinated with, was no longer allowed to be used in Germany. So you might say I had a very mixed week so far.

Comments

[ratcreature]

I am really underwhelmed with the vaccination efforts here so far.

Hopefully they'll have worked out some additional rare side effects warning label and resume the AstraZeneca shots by the time your parents are due for their second dose. And at least having the first one confers some protection? Probably better than just having missed the chance to get it. And from what I understand in the UK they are delaying the second doses for quite a bit and it seems to still work, so maybe even if theirs is delayed a bit because of the suspension, it won't matter too much.

[rose_griffes]

While I understand the extra caution with a novel virus and novel vaccine, AstraZeneca's vaccine has basically the same kind of track record as Pfizer. So the pause seems a bit over the top.

[shadowkat]

Odd, I thought WHO managed to convince the EU, along with EU scientists, that the Astra Zeneca was safe, and better than COVID? Apparently not.

So sorry. Hope things change soon.

Soul is a lovely movie. I found it very uplifting and inspiring - I was quite surprised by it, since I expected it to much the same way you did.

[thawrecka]

I haven't seen Soul, but the idea of a film about a musician that's actually passionate about the music is intriguing. So often films about artists are about mental illness and/or being unable to create art, or in the case of adult films, about sexual misadventure, and don't remember to include much of the thing they're supposed to be creating.

[felis]

my DVDs, which I had not watched in years, possibly since a year after the show ended, are of a terrible quality

I've had that with some DVDs I hadn't watched in years, too. Do yours look normal? Because mine had developed a white film on the underside and once I'd polished them - quite rigorously, since I thought there was nothing to lose anyway - they started working again.

[cahn]

Ugh, I'm sorry for the roller-coaster with your parents and the vaccine! Glad they got the first shot, and really glad that it sounds like they are going to resume using it? Fingers crossed, anyway.

[watervole]

Eeep! I didn't know DVDs could deteriorate. I hope my B5 ones are still okay!